Episode 541: Dungeons, Dragons, & Dinosaurs. Dr. Michael O’Sullivan joins to discuss his part in bringing dinosaurs to Dungeons & Dragons (and Pathfinder). We also cover the latest and greatest AI methods used in paleontology. Plus two new “compsognathid-like” dinosaurs and an ankylosaur for our dinosaur of the day.

News:

• There are two new compsognathid-like dinosaurs: Sinosauropteryx lingyuanensis and Huadanosaurus sinensis source
• Patron spotlight: Toon Rex shared their short story “A Meal Fit For a King” source

Interview:

Michael O’Sullivan, an Irish based paleontologist and writer and researcher for Palaeogames, which specializes in introducing realistic dinosaurs and other extinct animals into Tabletop Role-Playing Games.

Sponsors:

The dinosaur of the day: Panoplosaurus

• Ankylosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Alberta, Canada (Dinosaur Park Formation)
• Lived about 76 to 75 million years ago
• Looked somewhat like Ankylosaurus, but no tail club
• Walked on all fours, body was low to the ground, covered in armor, but no shoulder spikes, and had a long tail
• Estimated to weigh 3,500 lb (1,600 kg) and be about 16 ft (5 m) long
• Had a broad, triangular skull
• Skull was longer than it was wide
• Had small orbits (eyes) that were far from the snout
• Had a squared snout
• Had a completely fused shoulder blade
• Had robust arms
• Arms and legs about the same length
• Body covered in armor (plates, osteoderms, and scutes), but didn’t have any large spikes on its body
• Had bony plates and lumpy armor on the skull, including large osteoderms on the sides and on the jaws, and small scutes within the nostrils
• Holotype had an armor plate that covers the cheek
• Had a narrow scute across the entire back of the skull
• Had three bands of neck armor (three rows)
• First band of armor on the neck has three pairs of plates
• Had small armor in between the large armor
• Had smaller, round bones under the chin and under the body
• Holotype has over 200 scutes
• Had a complex nasal passage, with two complete 360 degree loops
• In a previous episode, compared the nasal passages of Panoplosaurus to a French horn (not as complex as Euoplocephalus, which is like a maze)
• Nasal passages helped save energy
• Possible the nasal passages/sinuses helped warm air it breathed in, and made it more moist
• A 2018 study found Panoplosaurus had a relatively weak bite force, so likely ate softer plants
• But also, it’s skull and jaw made it an efficient eater
• One study reported on gastroliths found with a specimen of Panoplosaurus mirus, but there’s no mention of it in the field notes or description, so there may not actually be associated gastroliths
• Fossils first found in 1917
• Charles M. Sternberg found a complete skull and lots of a skeleton in 1917 (includes most of the neck bones, some back bones, armor, lots of the arm, including three fingers, part of the hips, part of the foot, and hundreds of osteoderms)
• Named in 1919 by Lawrence Lambe
• Genus name means “well-armored lizard”
• Originally considered to be a stegosaur, but now considered to be a nodosaurid (no club tail)
• For a while, Edmontonia and Panoplosaurus considered to be the same, but now known to be their own genera (Kenneth Carpenter separated them in 1990)
• Sometimes some fossils thought to be Panoplosaurus are now considered to be Edmontonia (means in the past, thought to have lived in what’s now Alberta, New Mexico, and Texas)
• Area it lived in had channels and rivers
• Other dinosaurs that lived around the same time and place include hadrosaurs like Lambeosaurus, ceratopsids like Centrosaurus, the tyrannosaur Gorgosaurus, as well as Dromaeosaurus and Ornithomimus
• Other animals that lived around the same time and place include fish, amphibians, small mammals, crocodiles, and pterosaurs

Fun Fact:

AI is helping us identify dinosaur bones and might soon help to reconstruct whole animals from just a few bones. If you have access to 3D digitized dinosaur bones and you’re willing to share them, email JP at [email protected]

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